#your boy is Thinking tonight my dear. he is having a Time rn. (cue neil josten freaking out about the terrifying prospect of being known)
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happy wipwednesday my beloved! i glad to see that you survived yesterday's fight with our angel and came out winning!
i am here to humbly request to know what your other problem child is up after he fucked up his not-date. Can't wait for you to break my heart again but until then:
kith <3
WIP Wednesday (4/3) | Arsonist Neil / Firefighter Andrew AU (Part 126)
The only way Neil can fix this is by explaining himself. And explaining means telling the truth. A lot of it. Pretty much all of it, he thinks.Ā
How can he possibly do that?Ā
Neilās never told anyone the truth. Well, besides the FBI. And that doesnāt really count because he had no choice. That night it was either tell the truth or go to prison for being related to Nathan Wesninski. He chose wisely, of course. But it was no picnic for him. Neil recalls those horrible hours he spent recounting his absolutely abysmal childhood to a government issue thug wearing scuffed loafers and a bored expression.
They didnāt believe him at first. Not totally. They made him rehash everything over and over until his throat was raw from talking so much and they were finally, finally satisfied with his life story. Then they shoved him into witness protection, where he was forced to spend almost a year living in North Dakota under the name Peter Duncan.
God, Neil loathes that state. And he loathed Peter. And that stupid, dinky little apartment with the awful neighbors and shoddy TV service. Sure it was stable. Normal, even. But, as insane as it would seem to anyone else, he prefers being on the road again. Running is something heās used to. Something that makes sense even though his demons are long buried.
He likes traveling without a destination. He likes free Wi-Fi and complimentary breakfasts and room service and nice people telling him to ācome againā. He likes his stupid little car and itās stupid broken radio thatās thankfully stuck on a sports channel.
Hell, he even likes Neil. He likes the man heās become since crawling out from under his motherās corpse and his fatherās ax. Because despite everythingā all the names heās used and cities heās seen and things heās had to do to surviveā heās turned out to be a mostly decent person. Except for the wholeā¦ āburning down buildingsā thing. But heās working on it. Sort of. And on the bright side, he hasnāt killed anyone in years. Those were all self defense, of course. Soā¦ Do they really count?
Wait a minute, Neil blinks. What was his point?Ā
Oh. Right. The truth.Ā
Other than those suited pricks at the bureau, itās a completely foreign concept to him. Neil runs his fingers through his hair a few dozen times, the curls tangling around his fingers as he does. He rips his fingers through and wonders if he should shave his head again. No. No, itās about to be winter and he hates when his ears are cold.
And with his hair longer, he looks less like his father.
To prove that, Neil looks into the bathroom mirror and finds Neil Josten there. Not Nathan or Nathaniel. Not even Peter. (Of course not, Peter had black hair.) Neil gives his disassembled phone a glance and wonders if Andrew wouldāve wanted to be friends with Peter. Or any of his other aliases with friendly dispositions.Ā
It wouldn't matter. None of them would ever have even tried. That's one thing that sets him apart from all his past selves. He's trying. Neil lets out a breath. Heāll put his phone back together and tell Andrewā¦ Something.
In a day or two.Ā
When he figures out what that something is.
#your boy is Thinking tonight my dear. he is having a Time rn. (cue neil josten freaking out about the terrifying prospect of being known)#also muah muah muah <3333#andreil#aftg#WIP Wednesday#Arsonist Neil / Firefighter Andrew#šļø#answered#tisaqslur
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